Jemma Hartman is Now Available!

Feeling excited, grateful, overwhelmed, and hopeful!

Having Fun with Book Trailers

Here's another book trailer I made for Jemma Hartman, Camper Extraordinaire (edited with the help of my son, Sammy).

(Watch in HQ for best viewing.)

Disclaimer: Jemma is a fictitious character, and Camp Star Lake is a fictitious camp that bears a close resemblance to the very real and very wonderful Camp Birch Knoll. We were all just having fun here!

Sheri J Has Won a Book, and You Can, Too!

Congratulations to Sheri J, who is the next winner in the Countdown to Camp Contest. Sheri wrote about a huge storm at her camp where they lost power for four days and ended up brushing their teeth with bug juice. You gotta love it!

Now that my books and prizes have all arrived, I am starting to send out the prize packages to the winners.

Here's what Sheri and three other winners should be receiving in the mail this week:


Two tattoos, a deck of cards, a bracelet, a pen, a postcard, a piece of stationery, a bookmark, and of course, a book!

Next week I'll be drawing the final winner, so enter now! All you have to do is send me an e-mail or leave a comment on my blog or facebook group with a camp memory.

Here's what the professional reviewers have said about JEMMA so far:

"Any child who has ever lost a friend will relate to Jemma's inner turmoil. Ferber has drawn a realistic main character who experiences pain and discomfort when Tammy continually rejects her. The plot moves along swiftly, and Jemma’s first-person narrative rings true, as do the issues and the camp experience." Publisher's Weekly

"For all the tweens who believe in BFF but find out, to their great disappointment, that it isn’t for everyone, this is the book for them." Kirkus

"The author of Julia’s Kitchen (2006) offers here a lighter story for a slightly younger audience. Ferber has a fine ear for preteen dialogue and concerns, and her descriptions of overnight camp activities (especially sailing and waterskiing) will strike a chord with readers." Booklist

Confession: I am never really sure if what I'm writing is any good at all, so even though I'd like to say I don't care about reviews, the truth is, I do. That's why I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief right now and pinching myself a few times as these lovely reviews roll in. Yay!

CAbiDeb Won a Free Book!

Congratulations to CAbiDeb, the next winner of my Countdown to Camp contest. CAbiDeb wrote about the time she went to a sailing meet at a boys' camp and there was no wind. She said, "We tied our boat to a boys boat, which was a big deal when you went to an all girls camp, and spent the day lazing on the lake and trying to finish the race!" Sounds like fun to me. And since she learned to sail at camp, I think she'll really enjoy reading about Jemma's sailing exploits in JEMMA HARTMAN, CAMPER EXTRAORDINAIRE.
CAbiDeb, please e-mail me at brenda at brendaferber dot com with your snail mail address so I can send you your prize package.

In other news, I've been busy busy busy lately with lots of fun stuff, most notably spring break in Florida, some other travel, and preparing for my son, Sammy's, Bar Mitzvah. In the midst of all this, my book will be coming out so soon! I've got half-finished to-do lists all over the house. It would probably be smart to consolidate them all to one list, but that would require cleaning and organizing, something that is definitely not on any of my lists. Oh well. I'm sure everything will get done eventually. At least I hope so!

In the meantime, I wanted to recommend three terrific books that I read over spring break.

3 WILLOWS by Ann Brashares. She's the author of The Traveling Pants books, and this book, about three girls growing up the summer after 8th grade, really touched my heart. Can't wait to read more about Ama, Jo, and Polly. (Plus, willow trees have always been my favorite trees, so I loved all the random facts about them sprinkled through the story.)

LOOSE GIRL by Kerry Cohen. Kerry writes young adult fiction, but this is a memoir about growing up as a promiscuous young woman. I so admire Kerry's courage to write her story. She sheds light on an issue that many women don't know how to discuss. This is a great book for mothers and teenage daughters to share.

PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett. This enormous book is one of my dad's favorites, so I decided to take it on when I knew I'd have a lot of time on my hands. I don't read that much fiction for adults, and I certainly don't read that many 973 page books, but I'm so glad I read this one! I love stories that take place in the middle ages. Such an interesting time! Follett created the most evil character I've ever known... William Hamleigh. Ick. Gives me the chills just to type his name. But this book was filled with goodness and love, too. And I really want to go visit European cathedrals now!

And here's a bit of good news... One of my favorite children's lit blogs, Fuse #8 by uber-librarian Betsy Bird, actually mentioned JEMMA HARTMAN today. Check it out!

Congratulations Anna Z!

Anna Z. is the second winner in the Countdown to Camp contest! As soon as she e-mails her snail mail address to brenda at brendaferber.com, she will receive an autographed copy of JEMMA HARTMAN, CAMPER EXTRAORDINAIRE and lots of other fun stuff to bring to camp.

Anna's memory was all about sheet sliding at Camp Birch Knoll. She said, "I was going down with one of my cabin mates and we were going so fast that we both fell of the slide!"

Sheet sliding was one of my favorite memories from camp, too. For those of you who haven't experienced it, imagine a giant slip & slide on a huge hill with dishwashing soap and water. Fun, right? I loved it so much that I included it in my book!

Keep the camp memories coming! (Take a minute to read all the awesome memories already posted.) If public comments aren't your thing, you can always simply e-mail me. I'm picking a winner every week until the book comes out.